More than Twenty Falun Gong Practitioners from Chengdu City Detained and Subjected to Brainwashing

2011-05-16

Recently, the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) of Chengdu ordered neighbourhood associations to harass and detain Falun Gong practitioners. At least 20 practitioners have been detained in the past two months. Some of them were directly sent to a brainwashing centre. The whereabouts of the others are unknown. Many more practitioners and their family members have been threatened and harassed.

On the evening of April 28th, practitioner Ms. Zhang Mingfang was having dinner with her family, when about ten people from her neighbourhood association and the local police station broke into her home and arrested her. They ransacked her home, stole some cash and personal belongings, and sent her to a brainwashing centre.

Many of the arrested practitioners are elderly. Several of them are more than 70 years old. Almost all of them were arrested at their homes by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members. For example, Huang Tianming from Liulin Town, Wenjiang District was arrested by policemen while having a meal at home. Xie Chengxin, Feng Ping, Zheng Yingqiu and Li Yongxian were also arrested at home. After Xie Shinong from the Fuqin Neighbourhood Association arrested Xie Chengxin, he did not inform Xie Chengxin's family. Deng Chaozhong was trapped by workers from his neighbourhood association. Wu Jingjiang was arrested after taking his grandson to kindergarten. Qing Guangrong from Pengzhou City was arrested while planting rice.

Other than the practitioners mentioned above, Wang Minghui, a retiree from the Southwestern Institute of Physics, and Zhang Shanqun, the wife of an employee of the Southwestern Institute of Physics, were forced into homelessness in order to avoid further persecution. Jiang Hong, a teacher at Huayang Junior High School in Shuangliu County, and his wife were harassed by the 610 Office of Shuangliu County.

Most of the Falun Gong practitioners were held in brainwashing centres, with a majority of them held in the Xinlu Brainwashing Centre. The family members of the practitioners have not received any notice or letters regarding the arrests. A neighbourhood association staff member disclosed that the arrests were ordered by the 610 Office.

The neighbourhood associations did not allow family members to visit the imprisoned practitioners. They claimed that they did not know when the practitioners would be released. Their main purpose is to “convert” the practitioners.